American Parent
My Strange and Surprising Adventures in Modern Babyland
By Sam Apple
(Ballantine Books, Hardcover, 9780345465047, 320pp.)
Publication Date: June 2, 2009
Categories: Parenting - General, Personal Memoirs
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Part memoir, part journalism, part history, part downright strange and hilarious, American Parent takes readers on a unique tour of the world of new mothers and fathers. As Sam Apple embarks on his own journey into parenthood, he decides to put his background in journalism to good use by talking to a wide range of experts. Along the way, Apple visits with the mohel who circumcised him, enters a trance with a childbirth hypnotist, goes on a stakeout with a nanny spy, and attends a lecture on Botox for new mothers. Apple is full of questions, and none is left unexplored: Is the Lamaze method a Stalinist plot? (Yes.) Are newborns really fetuses that are born too soon? (Sort of.) Is there a universal theory that can explain the origins of circumcision in many diverse cultures? (Maybe.) Does it sting when you pour baby shampoo into your own eyes? (Big-time!)
And yet for all the unusual twists in this story–at one point Apple fantasizes about a father losing his mind and refusing to remove his BabyBjörn–the strangest twist of all might be that at its core American Parent is a deeply serious and personal book about the way emotionally vulnerable and confused new parents can get lost in the increasingly complex labyrinth of baby products, classes, and fads.
Parenthood is the oldest subject of all. In American Parent, Sam Apple makes it feel entirely new.
Sam Apple is a graduate of the creative nonfiction MFA program at Columbia University. He is the author of Schlepping Through the Alps: My Search for Austria’s Jewish Past with Its Last Wandering Shepherd, which was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. Apple’s writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Financial Times, and ESPN The Magazine. He lives with his wife and family in Brooklyn, New York.
“If What to Expect When You're Expecting somehow mated with Bill Bryson, the result would be American Parent. It's funny, smart, surprising, and useful. Sam Apple is a great writer.” —A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically
“Parents-to-be, you may feel that you're entering a foreign realm: a land of complex rituals, deadly hazards, and tiny screaming natives. That's where Sam Apple comes in. His book is an honest, funny, and oddly reassuring look at the reality of becoming an American parent.”–Laura Wattenberg, author of The Baby Name Wizard
“As a guy about to have my first child, this book was incredibly valuable. It's reassuring to know there's someone doing the same stupid things as me. Singing into my wife's stomach? Tasting baby food? I can't believe there are two of us this pathetic.” – Joel Stein, columnist, Time Magazine and The Los Angeles Times
“A brilliant, hilarious and touching foray into the brave new world of fatherhood ... So exhaustively researched, hilariously recounted and tenderly written, no new parent should be in the delivery room without it!”–Betty Londergan, author of The Agony and The Agony
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